The Missing Moments
by Illusive Writings
Summary: <html><head></head>This is a one-shots collection of missings bits and moments from my other two stories, Over The Hills... and Red Rain. I'd recommend you to read those two before approaching this.</html>
1. Anaesthesia

_So, I wanted to make a series of one shots for a while now and the other day, while I was on my usual sabbatical 24 hours between a chapter and the other when I usually gather up the ideas for the next one, I out of boredom I started writing this. There's a lot to tell in the end and since it's told from Anakin's point of view, I couldn't many things because he did not know them. It won't be updated that often, probably, still I hope I can make a good work with the missing pieces and moments of Over The Hills And Far Away, and then for Red Rain and then again for Last Of The Runaways, the third installment of my own Star Wars Trilogy. Last of the Runaways will probably take a while to appear on the side, but, heck, I'm already working on it. _

_Anyway..._

_I wanted to write this scene probably since the day I wrote the 33__rd__ chapter of Over The Hills And Far Away. I mean, a delirious Anakin making a fool of himself in front of Obi-Wan and his now personal surgeon talking about sex and masturbation? It was just too funny to remain only in my head! It's a short one, but heck, it's that kind of scene you must keep short or in the end it's not funny anymore! Enjoy!_

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><p><strong>Anesthesia<strong>

"Looks like somebody is waking up!"

A baritone voice echoed in the room. It was a hospital room, even if they weren't properly in a hospital, they were on one of the bigger freight of the Rebel Alliance in the hospital deck.

There was a man, laying on a stretcher. His chest was tightly bandaged to keep his nine damaged ribs (six were broken and three cracked) in place after the reconstruction, his right arm that up to one hour before had been a naked durasteel prosthetic limb was now covered with a realistic layer of synthflesh and synthskin newly applied and the spot where the synthetic skin connected with the real one, just below his elbow, was covered with a a thin band of bacta band aid just to prevent infection.

And last but not the least, his left leg had just underwent a very intensive reconstruction surgery and was now encased into a plastic orthopedic splint, holding it together and preventing any movement.

Well, there were a lot of other cuts and bruises on his body, most of all the large gash on his left temple that had stopped bleeding just moments before they started his surgery.

Beside him, clad in a greenish short-sleeved surgeon suit and a matching cap, stood the man that had practically saved his life twice, once back on Naboo when he performed another high risk emergency surgery on him in a non-sterile environment and second just an hour before, when he had managed to repair the extensive damage to his lungs, while a colleague worked her wonders on his leg and arm.

He stood there, his arms folded across his chest, smiling brightly down at his young and reckless patient, while his best friend and mentor sat in a corner of the room, watching over his young former Padawan while they waited for his bacta bath to be ready.

"How do you feel Anakin?"

He looked up at his trusted doctor and tried to smile, even though the remains of the strong anesthetic were impairing his perceptions and abilities. He made a strange smirk as he tried.

"Not...bad..." he whispered. His chest still hurt like hell and it was rather hard for him to breathe properly. At least breathe enough to speak. "Why is the room spinning?"

"Mmh, maybe you need this." Janu reached at his side and took an oxygen mask out of nowhere, placing it on the young Jedi mouth and nose, then he opened the flux of clear air.

Instantly, Anakin felt a lot better. "Thanks..."

"Not a problem. We're waiting for you bath to be ready. We have to heat it before we drop you in there or you'll freeze!" he told him, trying to distract him a little.

Anakin tried to smile but he failed miserably. "I hate bacta..."

"Oh, your Master told me. And he told me you've taken quite a lot of bacta baths in your life. Either partial or total body immersion..."

"Hey, I'm not one that remains in the background! Those were calculated risks!"

"Yeah, ok, like I believe it. Come on you're one of those guys who can't resist the urge to do something stupid as soon as they have the chance!"

From his corner, Obi-Wan chuckled soundly but remained silent.

"Maybe..." he took a deep breath and winced. His ribs were still hurting quite a lot, but at least it was bearable.

"Anyway, seriously, how do you feel?" asked again Janu. "I don't want to put you in there if you don't feel good enough to stand in there for an hour."

"Jany, I don't even know if I'm awake or if this is all a weird dream, do you think I knew how I feel?"

Sighing, Janu lifted his right hand holding out two fingers. "How many fingers do you see?"

Anakin squinted his eyes as if he was trying to focus on something far away from him. "Six?"

The surgeon dropped his hand and laughed. "Alright, he's totally hammered. I fear he won't remember a single word he said during this conversation!"

Obi-Wan chuckled again. "Better. He tends to be a little too expansive when he's under painkillers and other drugs!" he said from his corner. "I bet that if he doesn't fall asleep again soon, he's going to tell us something really embarrassing!"

"Really? Oh, that's just great! I love this kind of patients! They are just so fun to deal with!"

"Hey, are you two talking about me?" asked Anakin, his voice slurred and low.

"Oh yes Kid, there's no one else in here except from you!" replied Janu, grabbing a chair and sitting down beside the bed, after he had checked the temperature of the bacta. "You're the only one that needed surgery. All those who went through those doors either were DOA or needed some antiseptic and a stitch. You gave us enough work though."

"Hey, it's not my fault!" Anakin tried to say, but the result was a muffled and slurred sentence totally lacking the incision he had wanted to express.

"You were the one that flew down there alone!" replied Obi-Wan.

"Well, I wasn't planning to get back in these conditions!" this time Anakin managed to speak a bit better.

"I can bet on it!" said Janu, checking again the temperature of the bacta. "Damn, this thing is taking a lot of time to warm up!"

"New batch?" asked Obi-Wan.

He nodded. "Just opened. This is the inaugural bath of this tub actually."

"Then it will take a lot of time to heat it up, if that's the first time it's used!"

"Yeah...I just hope this Kid here will fall asleep again soon, I don't want to drug him even more to make him unconscious." said Janu typing something into a computer placed beside the stretcher. "Here, we've given him a huge amount of painkillers and anesthetics, we're just below the danger zone. Even during surgery this guy here started waking up...he gave really a hard time to our anesthesiologist."

"Now that you make me think about it if I remember correctly when he underwent surgery for his arm, he did something similar. After he almost woke up in the middle of the procedure, the anesthesiologist said he's one of those people who tend to metabolize drugs faster than the average." said Obi-Wan from his corner.

Janu made a face and chuckled. "It would have helped a lot to know it before we started his surgery. I mean, in the end everything went just fine but it would have saved a moment crisis back in that room."

At that point Anakin was just watching, even if his vision was rather blurred and split in three and listening as the two older men talked.

He didn't feel bad, that as true, but he did feel really numb and slightly nauseated. Janu had told him, hours earlier, just before he injected the first dose of anesthetic, that he had probably suffered from a commotion and his head was throbbing badly so it must have been true. The skin of his left temple seemed to be on fire and generally he didn't feel too good but not so bad either, everything considered.

He just felt stoned.

Totally stoned.

"How long will it take to be completely healed?" asked Obi-Wan, slowly walking towards the others.

Janu shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I mean, I'll have a more precise idea after he's taken this first bath. Doctor Koros, the orthopedic surgeon, said that the regenerating implant she installed in his ankle will take a while to rebuild the bones completely. Probably he'll have to walk with crutches and the splint for a week, add or take a day." he explained. "We're going to make him take this bath then we'll let him rest. After that, we'll see if he needs more therapy."

"Was he really so beaten up?"

"Well, to say the least, he was a wreck, when we started curing him. Nine damaged ribs, pulmonary contusion...that ankle was just torn into pieces. Yep, he was really beaten up!"

Anakin sighed rather noisily. "Oh, great! Fantastic! I had plans for tonight! Fuck it!"

Both Janu and Obi-Wan turned towards him.

"What plans?" asked Obi-Wan, curious.

Anakin smirked and groaned a bit as he felt his still sore ribs grit together. "What plans? I mean, I've been far away from my wife for eight fucking years! What do you think I wanted to do tonight?"

"Wow now this is interesting!" replied Janu.

"Interesting my ass! Fuck it! I'm tired of jacking off like a teenager!"

At that point Obi-Wan burst into such a loud and heartfelt laughter he literally doubled over.

"By the Force I can't believe he just said that!" he tried to speak through his laughter because he was really shaking, he could barely breath! "That was priceless!"

"Hey, what can I say! It's true! Damn it! I've missed many things during these eight years but let me tell you, sex was one of the things I missed most!"

Janu chuckled a bit. "Well, from a strict physiological point of view, I can understand that! You spent the statistically most sexually speaking intense years for men in prison or with a bunch of other guys. That's absolutely understandable!" he said as he sat down again and gestured Obi-Wan to take a seat beside the bed, so he could be an active part of the conversation and not just a simple observer.

He was still shaking so much from laughter that he barely managed to grab his chair and drag it towards the stretcher where Anakin laid without doubling over again with laughs.

"Yeah...I mean, eight fucking years. Dammit I swear I've never been one of those teenagers obsessed with jerking off, I didn't have much time or cared too much about it but, heck, once you discover the real deal...it's...nah, you can't understand!"

Janu and Obi-Wan exchanged an amused look. "Oh, I can't guarantee for your Master but I do. I have three children, I guess I understand what you mean rather well!"

"Then you can understand why I am a little pissed off by this hole situation!" snapped Anakin, though the last few words were more mumbled than spoken.

"I do, don't worry. I do...anyway but...did they allow you to do that kind of things while in prison?"

Anakin smirked again than coughed hard for a moment. "Yeah...well, I guess they didn't know because I was alone the whole time and the door was always closed. And it was a solid slab of durasteel, not one of those prison doors with bars and stuff like that."

"You were lucky then...if you can call that luck!"

"Could be worse..." whispered Anakin in reply. "The real problem is that I was used to my right hand when I was a teenager and when I started feeling the need again in prison, I had to get used to the other one. It wasn't easy in the beginning!"

"It's just a matter of practice in the end..." replied the surgeon in his very medically detached tone.

"I wish Master Yoda was here...just to see his reaction..." said Obi-Wan shaking his head. Then his eyes lit up for a moment as another idea came to his mind. "Now that we're speaking of this subject...when the hell did you find the time to stay with Padmè, during the War?" asked Obi-Wan. "I knew there was something going on between the two of you but...heck we've never been on Coruscant by the time the twins must have been conceived!"

Anakin tried to make a smug smile but it didn't result that way. He looked more like he was about to throw up. "You never asked her?"

The Jedi shook his head. "Heck no! I mean, I've always been curious but I was damn too ashamed to ask her this kind of things. Come on!"

The younger knight grunted for a moment.

"We had our ways. And other planets. We often met on Naboo when she wasn't on duty and I managed to escape from the sieges for a night or two. I can be very good at sneaking away from you!"

"So I noticed! You became really good with sneaking unnoticed into Imperial bases! Or out Imperial prisons too!"

Janu chuckled for a moment. "Too bad that every time you managed to show this great talent you get hurt!"

"Oh come on! Give me a break! I'm not perfect in the end!" he whined. "And I don't even pretend to be!"

Obi-Wan shook his head. "Too bad he's too stoned to remember this after he falls asleep again. The Anakin I left at the Temple eight years ago would never tell something like this!"

"People change, Master Kenobi. And after everything he went through, I would be very surprised if you wouldn't notice how much he has grown up." said Janu.

"I know. I noticed it the same moment I heard his voice on the comlink, before we started the attack."

"Hey you two I'm still here! Can you talk about me when I'm in that fucking tank? It makes me uncomfortable!" snapped Anakin.

Janu smirked for a moment. "Alright Kid...so, you said you had plans for tonight! Mind to share?"

"Oh I don't want to miss this!" stated Obi-Wan.

"I know I'm gonna regret this when I wake up..." mumbled Anakin. "Anyway, yes I had plans. I had some very epic plans for tonight! I was planning some very noisy fireworks and now I'm stuck here with a freaking broken leg! Fuck off!"

"Does he always get this gross when he's mad about something?" asked Janu.

"Not this bad. I mean, he curses a lot, he grew up among thieves and smugglers after all and they are not the best examples for a kid but when he was with me he always tried to keep himself from cursing like this. I think it's the anesthesia."

"Master, really, it's just me!" interjected Anakin. "I'm totally fucked up, stoned by I don't know how many drugs, I just risked my life to save five completely unknowns and my own wife...now he tells me tonight I can't make love with my wife because I have a fucking broken leg...listen, I've got any right to be very pissed off and to curse like this!"

"I never said you cannot have sex Anakin!" said Janu quite seriously, in a very detached and medical way.

He made a face and looked up at him. "What?"

"As long as you don't put too much weight on that leg and you don't force yourself to do something you clearly can't do with that leg in this condition, sex is absolutely allowed! No need to delete your plans. You just need to change them!"

Slowly, a sly smile made its way on Anakin's tired face. "Obi-Wan?"

"Yes?"

"Find a room far away from ours tonight. And I mean it! I'm gonna give her the best fireworks of her life!"

Obi-Wan could only try not to burst again laughing and just shook his head. "Alright Anakin. Just remember what Janu just said. Take it easy on that leg!"

"Look at my face! Do I look like someone who takes it easy?"

Both Obi-Wan and Janu stared at him for a moment. "You look more like a junkie at the moment!" stated the surgeon. "And thank the Gods this bath is almost ready."

Anakin sighed. "Alright...alright...I'll stop it here!" he said. "Damn, I'm sure I'm going to regret this in the morning. Why is the room spinning again?"

"Don't worry, you won't remember a thing when you wake up. And I'm sure your Master here will have a lot of fun when he tells you what you just said!" said Janu. "Now, close your eyes and sleep. You need it!"

Anakin tried to say something else but everything he could muster was an unintelligible groan before drugs took over his system again and sent him to dreamland for the next eight hours.

And Janu was right. When he woke up, hours later, he didn't remember a single word of that conversation. Fortunately for him!


	2. Return To Me

_So...I had this other piece in mind and since someone mentioned it...well, I wrote it. It's basically set between chapter 32 and 33, it's the tale of what Padmè did to get the kids to Naboo and the return. It ends right before Luke and Leia storm in Anakin's room and finally meet him for the first time. But, please, keep going with the hints and stuff you want to see written. Really, I appreciate it. It would make my job easier and if I receive enough prompts, I might even get a lot of stuff done while I'm at Metal Camp. Really, I will!_

_And...if you want to add something to this one shot, try to listen to the song Return To Me by October Project and listen closely to the lyrics. You'll discover some nice things. _

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><p><strong>Return To Me<strong>

"Come on, let's get him prepped for surgery, we don't have all day!" shouted Janu as his colleagues pushed the stroller with an unconscious Anakin Skywalker laying on it out of the small medical transport that had brought them from Daltarra to the medical freight.

"Do you think he'll make it through?" asked his wife, scared to death.

He snorted loudly as he rushed out of the door. "Of course he will. He went through worse without medical help. Just let me get my hands on him and he'll be good as new."

Padmè took a sigh of relief and pulled her hair away from her face. "Thank you Janu. You're the best!"

"I know." he smiled briefly. "But before I get to work on him, I want to check on you. Ok?"

Padmè stopped in her tracks. There was no time for useless check ups, she was fine and she had to get a transport fast to get to Naboo to her kids.

"I'm fine really, I don't need to be checked on! I'm fine!"

At that point, she felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Obi-Wan. "Please Padmè, let them take a look on you. You look a tad worn out, I'd feel a bit better. If I knew you are actually alright."

"But...I can't leave him...I..." she was stammering, and for her, it was a first. But then she realized she had something else to do, too, and suddenly regained her composure. Sort of. "I need to get to Naboo. I must get the twins here." she managed to say straight.

At that point, Aleha jumped off the small ship too. During the trip back from the planet she had been occupied with the comlink with Ahsoka asking her for some news.

"He's unconscious, he won't even notice you're gone!" she said. "Let them help you, I'll go and get a transport and escort you wherever you need to go! And believe me, I know him rather well, he would be very pissed off if he wakes up and finds you still in this conditions." then she ran away and sprinted down the hallway leading to another docking bay.

"I'll stay with him." stated Obi-Wan. "Don't worry about it, he won't be alone. Let them check on you then go and get the kids."

"Listen to your friends Padmè. Anakin won't go anywhere for some hours." said Janu dragging Padmè through the corridors of the freight while the others brought Anakin to one of the surgery rooms. During the trip from the planet they had managed to stabilize his internal injuries and they could take it slow and be carefully prepare him for a long surgery. "You don't look great, not in his conditions, still you don't look at your best ! Give me a few minutes and I'll let you go!"

Sighing, she nodded and let him lead her to one of the rooms. "Alright. Let's do it." she said. "But, Obi-Wan, please, stay with him. I don't want him to be alone now!"

"He won't. As long as Janu will allow me, I'll stay with him every moment."

"Hey, you don't look like you need a bacta bath!" replied the surgeon picking some instruments from one of the many closets on the walls.

Obi-Wan chuckled. "Well, not every moment!"

"You can go if you want. I don't think I'll have to do much here!" replied Janu. "How do you feel?" he asked Padmè.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Fine I guess! I'm tired but I guess it's normal!"

"You've been hit by a huge explosion, did you fall somewhere? Hit your head or something like that?" he asked checking her eyes.

She shook her head. "No. Anakin pushed me behind a tree so the blast wave didn't hit me. That's why he was caught in it and broke his leg."

"And some other things too." replied Janu. "Do you hears ring?"

"A bit, but it's not too bad."

"Headache? Sore ribs? Anything out of place?" he kept asking, slightly worried about her actual condition. He feared she was trying to hold on through so she could get out even if she actually didn't feel good. He knew far too many people who hid their symptoms even if they've been literally through hell, just like her, but they wanted to get out of the hospital as soon as they can. Sometimes willingly risking their life.

"No I'm fine! I think the worst thing is this!" she held her hand up and showed a superficial scrape on her knuckles. "It doesn't even hurt!"

Janu sighed and shook his head. "Sometimes I wonder what the hell I studied medicine for! Seems like you never need much from me!" he said pulling a bacta band aid out of another closet and placing it on her wound. "Even when you were younger!"

"Well, Anakin needs much more help than me!" she said. "So, can I go now?"

Janu nodded. "Yep. Clear bill! Now, I'll go and stitch your husband up. Fetch your kids and bring them here. It's quite time for them to meet their dad!"

Irrationally, Padmè jumped off the examination table and hugged the doctor. "Thank you."

A bit stunned but that act, but not disturbed, he hugged her back. "It's nothing. Now go, and try to get back as soon as you can!"

Janu was about to leave when the door opened and appeared Aleha on the frame. "Hey, you're still here. Is she ok?" she asked Janu.

He nodded, stepping out of the room. "She's alright, but please, for the next few hours, try to keep her awake. A couple of hours should be enough."

The Jedi nodded. "Don't worry, my daughter is coming with us and believe me, she's great at keeping people from sleeping!"

"Yeah, I think I can remember. Now have fun and don't run too much. Considering how long we'll have to work on him and the bacta tank, Anakin will be stone cold for at least fourteen hours. Take your time!"

"Will do." replied the Jedi. "Now go, we'll be fine!"

"May the Force be with you..." he greeted them. "Looks like you'll need it."

"And with you Janu!" replied Padmè. When he went down the hallway, barking orders left and right, the two women headed to the ship deck where Aleha had prepared a transport.

They walked silently for a while before out of nowhere, Hilean appeared in the hallway. "Hi Mom...good afternoon Mrs. Skywalker!" she greeted them politely.

Padmè shook her head. "How many times do I have to tell you can call me Padmè?"

"I'm sorry, it's just the habit!" she replied before her mother picked her up.

"Don't worry. Try to call me Padmè next time ok? No formalities between us!"

The child nodded and relaxed in her mother's arms. "How was the battle?"

Aleha sighed. "The usual stuff. Boring, gory stuff. They're all the same. You'll see them when you're old enough."

"And Master Skywalker? I heard he was hurt?"

"Oh, don't worry, he'll be just fine." at that point they were in front of their transport. "Now, settle down, we're going to Naboo, alright?"

"We're going to Naboo?" asked the girl shifting in her mother's arms.

She nodded. "Yes! You remember Luke and Leia?" the girl nodded. "Well, we're going to pick them up because it's time for them to meet their dad!"

Hilean looked up at Padmè. "Fantastic! Finally you found him!"

Padmè nodded. "Actually, he found me." said Padmè sitting in one of chairs in the cockpit and helping Hilean getting prepared for set off.

"And..." interjected Aleha while she started the engines. "Now doctor Janu is taking good care of him."

The girl smiled and squealed a bit on her seat while the engine roared as the ship took off. "That's great! I can't wait to see their reaction when you're going to tell them!"

"How do you think they will react?" asked Aleha at that point.

"I don't have the faintest idea." replied Padmè sitting down herself. "They will surely be overly excited, but I don't know how they will react. We'll just have to wait and see."

They were now heading out of the gravitational field of the freight and Aleha was maneuvering the ship to outer space in order to make the jump to lightspeed. The trip would have taken approximately six or seven hours to go and the same time to return, so the medical equip would have all the time they needed to fix up Anakin and for him to wake up from the anesthesia.

And Aleha hoped to return before he would wake up. She knew that he would love to wake up with them at his bedside, and she would do anything to allow him to, but she knew all too well that Anakin was rather fast at metabolizing chemicals and her idea was probably impossible to happen. After his surgery for the implant of his arm, they had joked about it quite often, because he had caused quite a stir in the surgery room when he had started rousing from the drug induced sleep way before he was supposed too. She had her brother tended to pick him quite often, telling him that he could do all the drugs he wanted that by the end of the night the effect would have been gone and no one would have noticed in the morning.

Anyway, by the time she had made the jump to lightspeed, the both Aleha and Hilean, but most of all the child, were listening to Padmè's tell of the events of her rescue and what Anakin had done to save the captives.

It took her almost two hours to answer their questions, because they were both curious, in different ways, and they wanted to know what had happened. Aleha wanted to know because she herself had thought it was impossible to do what he had done, but her daughter wanted to know everything because her naïve and childish mind wanted the adventure, the fable and the knight-in-shiny-armor thing.

In her mind, she had created a rather special image of Anakin Skywalker, from the tales of her mother and her uncle first, then Ahsoka when she had met her, and then from Padmè and her friends Luke and Leia when she had met them. After all, she was barely five years old, she had all the rights to seek the happily ever after in her short and up to now safe life.

She was genuinely upset when Padmè had told them about their meeting with Darth Vader. Just as Anakin was the prototype of the strong, trustworthy Jedi Knight, and it took him years to convince her otherwise, Darth Vader was a sort of nightmare. Not that anyone used his figure to scare her, no one ever did, but she had heard of what kind of atrocities he was capable of, and he scared her. Knowing that Anakin had faced him, it made her rather uneasy and somehow frightened, even though she knew there was a happy ending to their meeting.

When they arrived on Naboo, Aleha managed to find a nice spot to leave the ship not too far from the Naberrie house and the three of them rushed there as fast as they could walk. And considering the presence of Hilean, they were rather slow. But no one was chasing them, so they didn't have to run anywhere.

But every step they took towards the house, Padmè felt more and more anxious. She had never properly prepared for this moment. Never. Actually, she had never thought about it, she thought that somehow, Luke and Leia would have been there when Anakin would make his appearance. But she had been wrong.

And now she had to tell them that their father had found her but had got hurt, badly.

In that very moment, she dreaded their reaction.

And most of all, she dreaded her parent's reaction, considering that they had taken care of him a year before when he had been hurt. How could she just tell them that after all they had done for him, he was hurt again, as badly, if not worse, than before?

It might sound stupid but from her very special point of view, it was a crucial point. Her parents, and most of all her mother, tended to be incredibly apprehensive and considering that she didn't know anything except the fact that Anakin was badly hurt and was undergoing a massive reconstructing and life-saving surgery. It would have taken all her courage to tell them what had happened!

But as soon as they were in front of the house, she completely forgot all the worries and just rushed inside, with Aleha and Hilean tailing her. It was late afternoon there, almost time for dinner, and of course she found her mother in the kitchen preparing dinner for the family and the sudden apparition of her youngest daughter made her jump in her place, startled and definitely scared.

"What are you doing here?" asked Jobal wiping her hands on her apron.

"Where are Luke and Leia?"

"In the garden but...what's going on?"

There was no time for answers. Her daughter just ran out of the kitchen into the garden in the same moment Aleha stepped into the room. Jobal looked at her, confused as hell, and asked for explanations.

"She found Anakin..." simply replied the Jedi walking towards the door that opened on the garden.

From there she could see Padmè rushing down the small path and and go looking for the twins. She could feel the anxiety that clutched Padmè's heart through the Force and she could also feel the great joy and sense of relief that flowed through Jobal.

"Really?"

Aleha nodded. "Yes ma'am. Just some hours ago."

"Then why isn't he here?"

The Jedi sighed and for a moment thought about what words use. "Ehm, there was a huge battle with the Empire and he needed medical attention. Padmè decided to come and get the twins meanwhile the medics took care of him!"

"Oh gods is he alright?"

"Don't worry ma'am, he'll be just fine." after that, both women looked outside the door into the garden.

Padmè had found the twins playing with their cousins and had called them loudly.

Hearing their mother's voice so suddenly, they both stopped on their tracks and turned towards her. Rather upset by such a hasty return from the battle, they ran towards her and crashed into her as she knelt down and embraced them both. "You're safe!" they said in the same moment.

"I've never been better. And you Squids? Have you been good with your grandparents?" she asked embracing them tightly.

"Yes, we have!" replied Leia a bit annoyed by the usual question. They were always good, they were good kids in the end, no one had ever had to complain about them, even if sometimes they could be a bit troubling, after all, they were young and full of energy! But they both hated when someone asked them if they had been good.

"Good, because there's a surprise for you!" she told them smiling brightly. They had never seen their mom smiling like that. She was radiant, even her eyes, usually dark and gloomy with sadness and worry, were sparkling like they had never seen.

They exchanged a worried look. "What surprise?" asked Luke.

Padmè took a deep breath and braced herself for their reaction, whatever it might have been. "I know where your dad is!"

Their jaw dropped as if they had just seen a ghost. For a long and incredibly silent moment, they stood there, looking at her, apparently mute.

"You're not joking, right?" asked Leia.

Padmè shook her head. "How could I? I'd never think of lying about this! He found me! For real!" she assured them as their dumbstruck face turned into a broad smile and they started jumping all around their mother exulting, over joyed by the news they had been waiting for years, since they had heard about their father from their Master and some time later from their mother.

"Where is he?" demanded Leia.

"On one of the Alliance's ships, not too far from Poderis, in the same system of Daltarra, where we attacked. He was hurt during the battle and he needed to be cured." she told them quietly. "Don't worry though. He's in very good hands. Now, go and get your things. We need to get going!"

They rushed into the house, storming between their grandmother and Aleha, barely greeting them. Hilean soon followed them and left the adults in the kitchen. Jobal was on the verge of tears when she hugged her youngest daughter tightly. "I'm so happy for you Padmè. I admit that I had almost lost all hope."

"Me too mom. When I saw him opening the door of my cell I..."

"Cell? What are you talking about?" interjected her father stomping in the kitchen in all his towering stance. "What's going on here?"

"Ruwee, they've found Anakin!" answered his wife.

His face lost color, almost completely. "What?"

"It's a long story dad. For now, you just need to know that Anakin found me and he'll be just fine, even if he was hurt!"

"Oh, damn it! That man doesn't really know how he manages to get into troubles all the time!" he joked. "I guess you're here to get the kids!"

Padmè nodded. "Yes. Aleha and I rushed here as soon as the battle was over and we left Anakin in Janu's hands."

"Janu? What the hell happened?"

"I told you, it's a long story, we'll tell you one day or another!" repeated Padmè. "But now we need to go. It would take too long to tell you."

Ruwee wasn't happy to hear this. He wasn't an impatient man, but in that moment, he wanted his daughter to spill everything and let them know what the hell had happened on Daltarra in the previews hours. Just three days earlier she had hastily dropped the kids there, and now she dropped there like a bomb, telling them that they had found Anakin and that he had got hurt bad enough to need Janu's expert hands in trauma surgery? He didn't like it. At all.

"Padmè Naberrie Skywalker, just because you're at the head of the Rebel Alliance doesn't allow you to behave like this. You can't just drop a bomb like this and get away like this, no freaking way. Next week is the twins' birthday, as soon as Anakin is good enough to travel, you get your ass here and tell us everything! You understand?"

Padmè stared at her father rather upset. She had never heard him talking like that, in such a peremptory tone. It felt strange, really. He had never spoken to her like that when she was a child, and he did it now that she was thirty six years old? Well, given the extraordinary situation, she could understand him quite well.

"Dad, I had already thought about it. And I had the same idea! We'll be here. Don't worry." in that moment, the kids arrived with their backpacks on their shoulder, as impatient to leave as her. "But now we have to go. Really."

"Then go! But believe me, if you don't get here before the twins' birthday I'll..."

"Oh Ruwee, cut it, alright? She's all grown up, she has her reasons to act like that. Come on. Let them go!"

And so they were gone.

The trip back to the system where the Alliance freights were stationed took a bit longer than what they had thought, and the kids were getting impatient. Very impatient. And incredibly noisy.

Hilean tried to keep them calm but she was outnumbered. Luke and Leia were absolutely uncontrollable, two tiny volcanoes of energy. They couldn't stay calm and sit down in any way. Padmè tried to keep them calm, but no such luck. Halfway through the trip though, the adults and the kids found a compromise. The kids would stay in the crew compartment and the adults would stay in the cockpit, where they could shut the door and keep the noise out.

At some point, Padmè leaned back on the padded chair and sighed.

"Hey, you alright?" asked Aleha.

"Yes, I am...I'm just tired, that's all."

"You haven't slept a moment since you got out of the base. Do you think you can hold on?"

Padmè nodded and took a deep breath. "Yeah, I'm fine. Back in the days of the senate, I was rather used to lack of sleep. I can hold through and wait for tonight when I can get some sleep!"

"And you really think you're going to sleep tonight?" joked Aleha, smiling wickedly.

Padmè chuckled. "Yeah, I don't think I'm going to sleep much tonight. But, well, I think I'm not going to regret it!"

"Oh, that's for sure!"

Four hours later Aleha docked the ship to the freight dockyard. Padmè gestured to get the kids' stuff when Aleha stopped her.

"No way. You get the twins to the hospital wing, I take care of these things. Actually, I take care of the ship as a whole, I think I'm going to use this for the trip back to Dantooine."

Sighing, Padmè hugged her. "Thank you Aleha. For everything."

"Oh, don't worry about it. This and much more for friends."

"Come on kids, we have to go."

The walk to the hospital wing took something like forever. They asked where they had placed Anakin to a nurse and she gave them some vague indications. Thank the Force they found Janu in the hallway.

"Hey there! Already back?" he bellowed happily.

"Yep, we had a slight delay but we're here finally."

"Good, because I just checked on Anakin not fifteen minutes ago and he's rather fine. A bit tired, but fine. A broken leg and some sore ribs but he'll be alright in less than a week." he told them.

"He's alright then?" asked Luke, his blue eyes shining.

"He'll be perfect in no time. Just go and see him, he's just down the hallway, last room on the left. He was talking to Obi-Wan when I left him." he said. "Oh, just a tiny detail! He'll need a bacta bath in a while, so get ready to let go of him for an hour. And, the surgeon that fixed his leg did a sort of miracle with his arm. Wait and see!"

"Alright. Thank you, I really appreciate what you've done for us!"

"My pleasure, Padmè. Now, please, go and see him. He's waiting for you." then he was gone to his job.

Taking a deep breath, Padmè took Luke's and Leia's hands in hers and walked down the hallway towards his room. She had imagined that moment so many times in her head that it felt almost surreal. It took her all her courage and she was definitely trembling, and it was strange for her.

But everything changed when they arrived. For the first time, Luke and Leia could see their father, even if only through an observation window, and somehow, it felt magical. She could almost feel their excitement, even if she wasn't Force sensitive.

"That's dad?" asked Leia, a bit unsure of herself.

She nodded. "Yes Squid. It's him. And..."

In that moment he moved his gaze from Obi-Wan to the window and his expression totally changed, his smile widened and she could see tears gleaming in his eyes. And she knew he had stopped listening to Obi-Wan the same moment he noticed they were just outside his hospital room.

And surely, Obi-Wan turned around and saw them there. At his gesture to come in, the kids looked up at her as if asking for permission to go.

"Come on kids, get in."

To her, it felt like her heart had started beating again, after eight years of nothingness. Finally, she could breath again, she could live again. A whole new world started in that moment. Finally, he had kept his promise. He had returned.

* * *

><p><em>Alright, last update before I leave. I think. Well, Tomorrow and this Sunday I don't think I'll have much time to write anything else but I wanted to finish this before I left. Hope you liked it and well, enjoy it!<em>

_Slovenia, I'm coming!_


	3. Once Upon A Time

_I don't know how many of you remember it, but in chapter 25 of Over The Hills And Far Away, Anakin makes a comparison between him and the main character of an old fairy tale his mother used to tell him when he was a kid. So, the other day, I was translating that chapter for the Italian version of the story and I thought, hey, what I write the fairy tale? Since it's going to be mentioned again in Red Rain (and it's going to be very important!) I thought it would be nice to write it! So, here it is my dear readers! _

_**But remember that this doesn't appear in the canon of Star Wars, I made it, it's my own creation, functional to the continuity of the story. **_

_Be careful though: __this version__ is not the one Anakin knows and tells in chapter 25 of Over The Hills... His mother (in my head of course, not in the canon universe) told him the shorter version, without the bad endings of the Red and Yellow Knight and the happy ending for the Black and White Knight. This change is useful for a future chapter of Red Rain, it's not a mistake. _

_This is the whole story._

* * *

><p><strong>Once Upon A Time There Was a Black And White Knight<strong>

A long time ago, on a planet far far away,

there were three brothers. Their name is lost in time, but their deeds are not forgotten, even after thousand of years have passed since they lived.

They were knights, strong and valorous. They trained every day of their youth to become protectors of the harmless, those who couldn't protect themselves from the actions of the criminals that infested the galaxy.

The eldest one, the Red Knight, was the bravest of all. He lived for the fight, he traveled all around the galaxy since he was twenty years old and fought thousands of battles. He always returned victorious from every battle and his actions decided the results of hundreds of wars.

He was well known and trusted by millions of people he had helped and they created stories around his figure. Some say he once fought against a dragon, a creature from the myths that devastated entire planets with his breath of fire, which caused havoc everywhere it touched.

Other say that he enslaved huge creatures that ate human beings. Other stories regarded his ability to fight with his sword and the strength of his shield.

His red shield was the real source of his power. It was infused with the power of a raging volcano. He had forged it himself from the metal extracted by the soil at its roots, then carried all its weight to the mouth of the flaming mountain. It took him six months to reach the peak of the volcano, and three months only to melt the metal. During that time, he meditated for long hours, in the heat generated by the continuous eruptions, and by the time the iron had melted, he had reached a level of knowledge few other men could achieve.

Then he spent a whole month forging his shield, making it his own, personal weapon of defense, but also offense. Its edges were sharp as razors, and he could cut his enemies in half using it. It was his own, because he added some of his own blood to the melted iron, and pronounced an oath to the Gods, asking him to make that shield invincible. The Gods, seeing into his pure heart that he wished nothing but to help people, granted his wish and made the shield invincible and weightless, also turning the shiny layer of iron into a flaming red magical item.

With it, it could endure the worst conditions, resist to desert heat and glacial cold, stand the flames of dragons and break teeth and bones of the toughest creatures. If he stuck it in the ground, during a sandstorm, he could find shelter hiding behind it, for its power would deflect the fiery sand and survive the worst of the sandstorms.

He was invincible, as long as he had his shield with him.

But other stories, stories that usually are not included into the records of his deeds, told that he was detached from the others. He had found a balance within himself that allowed nothing to penetrate his soul. He wasn't able to see that in the Galaxy there was more than wars and battles, than wrongs to be made right. He didn't see the feelings that the people in front of him, most of the time his enemies, experienced. He knew nothing about friendship, compassion, love. To him, everything was either right or wrong, there was nothing in between.

He had also forgot he had two younger brothers.

This state of total detachment made him do choices that from his point of view were absolutely right, but for others, they were immoral. The Red Knight, in his late years, was unable to distinguish between morality and righteousness. And sometimes, the two concepts didn't coincide.

After years of total emotional emptiness, years during which the Gods watched over him and hoped he would return on the right path, but he didn't. For this, he was punished. His shield was snatched away from his hands, and he wasn't even able to feel the difference. His apathetic state of mind made him decide he could go on without the powerful artifact. This sin of pride was the fatal flaw that drove him to his death, when, at the age of 156 years, he tried to fight a group of farmers turned scavengers by the famine that had struck their region.

Again, he wasn't able to choose between right and moral, and was killed in action, both because he was now old and weak, and both because he didn't have his shield anymore.

He now rests on that same volcanic planet he had forged his shield on, his tomb forgotten underneath the earth and the solid lava. The initial purity of his intention was tainted by his inability to feel the love as normal people do.

His younger brother though had a better life, though he was far from perfection too.

By the age of ten, he had discovered his love for archery. He built his first bow the same year, and started practicing every day. By the age of twenty, as his older brother had done, he embarked on the quest to make the perfect bow.

He traveled on one of the farthest planet of the Galaxy, where the best trees grew and for six months, he searched the perfect wood to make his perfect bow. He fought with wild beasts and strange creatures. He also befriended some of them, the most docile, those who helped him and protected him by the predators during the night, when he rested his limbs aching from the long and strenuous search.

Finally, one morning, he found the perfect tree. Strong, but soft at the same time. Perfect for the purpose. It took him a week to cut one of the biggest branches and two months to carve it to his needs.

The efforts he put in the process left him marked for life. His mind was now resolute and steady, his arms strong and when he pulled the string of his bow, he could stand motionless for hours, aiming to his target.

His deeds are more silent than his brother's, but famous nonetheless.

The Yellow knight seldom spoke, he traveled alone from planet to planet, he listened carefully to what people had to tell and reassured them, with a wide, sympathetic smile on his face. That smile never left his lips, and that made people love him even more.

Still, even if he had devoted his life to the guardianship of peace and his people's safety, he wasn't happy. He found solace in making things go better, but still there was something very wrong with his life.

There was no love.

Non that he couldn't feel it, no, he was full of love for everything, living and unliving, but there was no love in his life. He rarely remained in one place long enough to create bonds with people there, and he felt like there was something missing from his soul. A missing piece.

But that wasn't enough to stop his quest.

He never put his personal wishes in front of the others' safety. He protected people from the infernal creatures he met on the way, banishing them from the face of the Galaxy.

He was deeply saddened by the news his brother had perished, but he didn't leave space for his own sadness to stop him. He was already advanced in age, but still he roamed around and shoot arrow after arrow from his bow, until he was too weak to do so. He was 230 years old.

At that time, he was on a beautiful planet not far from the place his brother rested. Its beautiful, thick forests and wonderful lakes were the frame of his last days. A young woman carefully and lovingly took care of this weak old man, listened to his tales and wrote them all, to tell her children about the man that captured her heart with his adventures.

He died peacefully, but still unhappy, for there was still that missing piece from his heart that crippled his feelings. He was able to love unconditionally all the living things, but was completely incapable of having a special person at his side.

The younger brother, the Black and White Knight, he was the most unfortunate.

He was much younger than his other brothers. He was born when his older brother was already thirty years old, at the apex of his glory.

He grew up in the shadow of the two Knights, always trying to be worth of both of them, but his disposition was not as balance as theirs. He was a young boy who wanted to make his brothers proud of him, but rarely managed to do so.

He suffered an ill temper, always on the verge of burst of rage because of his failings. He felt like he wasn't worth of any of this. He couldn't concentrate on anything long enough to master it, so he didn't excel in anything.

By the age of twenty, he traveled around the galaxy himself, like his brothers had done, but during this long and seemingly endless voyage, while his brothers had earned a strong faith in their beliefs, he lost it, completely. He saw too many wrong things around him, and he didn't feel powerful enough to do anything. He tried to help, he freed slaves from their tormentors, but new ones returned. He fought hideous creatures and sent them back from where they had come, but in a couple of years everything returned like before.

This made him lose hope in himself, and his self esteem was as low as the lowest rung of hell. He couldn't find a sense in his life, everything he did seemed to be wrong or useless, and he easily was prey of a deep despair and depression, not to mention that his rage sometimes caused him to lose control of his strength and he risked to kill, or even killed, innocent people.

Unlike his brothers, who had earned great and special abilities, the Red one through an oath to the Gods, the Yellow one through his own actions and the sweat of his brow, he didn't earn anything from his long voyages all around the Galaxy. He earned only a long list of bad memories and even worse failures.

But he possessed something they lacked. The Black And White Knight could feel love. He could feel the emotions the other two completely lacked. And one day, after years of loneliness and after being stranded by all those who loved him, he found a special woman, a very special woman who gave him refuge during a snowstorm. He fell in love with her, a deep and unconditioned love that renewed his hope in life. She taught him the patience and the acceptance of our own failures, she explained that not all failures come to punish us. She told him, one afternoon while he recovered from the damages the bitter cold had done to him, that failures come when we need to learn something. Failures come to teach us how to do things better, and our place in life. She herself had learned to deal with failures in a different way as she grew up.

The Black And White Knight listened to the young woman in rapt, eagerly gathering every word she said and keeping it safe in his heart forever. He then resumed his voyage, but going against everything he had been taught as a child, he promised to return and to marry her.

So he did. Ten years later, when he was thirty six, he returned and married the girl. When his brothers knew of his forbidden marriage, they disowned the Black And White Knight, but at that point he didn't care anymore.

He had found what they lacked. His balance came from the strength of their bond, and it was far stronger than their so called balance, something that brought them only unhappiness.

In the years that came, he grew stronger and his deeds changed the lives of many, all around the Galaxy. He didn't even have to travel like his brothers. Some of the actions he did on one place had a strong resonance on other planets and caused many good things to happen, other than what he had done himself. His deeds caused people to start believing in themselves and stand up and fight for what they thought it was right.

Through failures, the Black And White Knight had found his path, through love he had found his balance. He had endured the adversities of life and found his own place in the circle of life. At her side.

* * *

><p><em>So, here it is. It's a tad different from the story Anakin knows, but it's better you know before I go on with the story because it's gonna be rather important. The idea of the different forms comes from the tradition to cut some parts of fairy tales and stories in generals to make them adapt for kids, the Brothers Grimm tales are always cut and somewhat censored before they are told to kids. The real tale, it's a totally different matter most of the time. So it is in this one. The fairy tales for kids is "censored", to make it somehow educative, while the real myth (of course in my own story, not in the canon of Star Wars, this doesn't exist, it's a creation of my mind, roughly inspired by an italian song) is completely different, and if you read carefully, you'll notice the three knights are nothing more than metaphors. It's up to you understand what they stand for. <em>


	4. One Man Army, Senator Style

**One-Man-Army, Senator Style**

"_Sahn Dalan, I presume._"

As she heard Obi-Wan's voice coming through the comlink, she stopped breathing for several seconds.

That's what Anakin was talking about. That's why they had to get out of there as soon as they could.

The very man they had been trying to avoid since they had started their journey was there, in front of them, and he was arresting them!

Shocked and stunned, Padmè leaned back on the pilot chair she had been sitting in since they had left the spaceport and thought about what could happen from that moment on. A myriad of terrible thoughts raced through her mind since she knew what Imperials could do, and were allowed to do, by the new laws designed by the Emperor, to prisoners and people caught committing a crime.

She feared they would treat them as Anakin had been treated while in prison.

And, unfortunately, her fears became reality not much later than their arrest.

She heard a short dialogue, in which Anakin offered to be interviewed by Dalan, even if Obi-Wan had tried to persuade him not to do it, that he could go himself. But Anakin had been determined to spare his Master from something he knew all too well, and that he was sure he could bear. Because his fears mirrored hers.

Silently, he had allowed them to take him the Gods knew where and beat him like an animal, mock him, and he had silently endured their mocks and derision, but still she could hear every blow he received through the comlink. And it was almost impossible to stand.

Unable to control herself, she had started crying hard, most of all because she knew he had already been through this, and he didn't deserve it. At all.

But the last straw came when she heard him scream in pain. She felt the anger rise in her chest, like she had never felt in her life, not even when the Empire had risen or when she had found out Sidious' plan and what Anakin had done to try to tamper him.

He didn't deserve that.

And she decided to take action.

She had to do something, or they would have died in there!

Padmè leaned back on the chair and took a deep breath, trying to calm down a little. She had to do something, that was sure, but what? She wasn't a soldier, she had been trained in the use of various weapons and self defense but...

But she had a an advantage on her side. The surprise effect. They didn't expect anyone to come and save them. Maybe with some help...and suddenly she had an idea. A great idea, to say the least.

She didn't even check the hour to see if on Dantooine was day or night, she called the emergency contact their trusted hacker gave them and waited for her to answer.

She had to wait for a while, and while she did so, she took the time to check the hour on Dantooine. Well, it was roughly four in the morning there, she had all the rights not to answer. Or to be a little late.

"Do you think she'll answer?" she asked to Artoo. He swung his domed top towards her and beeped feverishly. The translation appeared on a small screen in front of her. _I hope so, or we'll in great troubles! _

Padmè could only smile. That little droid had a great sensibility when it came to the events of his owners. He was far more compassionate than his counterpart, Threepo. "I know. But I need her help, I can't go in there alone!"

_I'm here if you need help!_

"I know Artoo, but I need you here. If the plan I have in mind works, I need you to control the ship."

_Oh, I almost thought you would leave me here with nothing to do!_

"Never. You're just too important."

In that moment someone picked up the call on the other side. But it wasn't Lysveet. "Anakin?" Darrick's voice came through the comlink and it was a slight shock to hear him instead of the hacker. Most of all because he was panting as if he had been running the marathon.

"Darrick, what..."

"Padmè? What's going on?" he asked, suddenly his voice sounded a lot clearer.

"I...I was calling Lysveet but...why are you answering her emergency comlink? At night most of all!" well, she could actually imagine, but she didn't say anything.

"Well I..." he was terribly embarrassed, she could tell. "Listen, it's complicated. But why are you calling?"

"I...we have a problem. Dalan captured Anakin and Obi-Wan." she said, quite bluntly.

"What?" this time along Darrick she heard Lysveet screaming. "What did you say?" she went on.

"I...well, we were following a lead and we were going to investigate but yesterday I didn't feel well so they went by themselves and, well, they found out Dalan was in the same place just a moment before he captured them."

"Shit..." from the other side, Padmè could hear the swooshing of the bedsheets being pushed away as the slicer got up. "What do you need?"

"I need to get inside Drogheda Citadel." she told them.

"Alright. Just give me a moment..." she heard Lysveet typing furiously on her keyboard. "Here...I'm sending the plans over. How much time do you have to get them out?"

"Not much. The sooner I take them out the better will be."

"I guessed so. What do you want to do?"

"I..." Padmè sighed and glanced at the weapon cabinet, at her right. "A one-man-army attack. It's the only thing I can come up with."

There was a moment of silence on the other side. "OK, I think the same. What do you have? Weaponry, I mean." asked Darrick.

"I have my carbine, a couple of guns and an E-11 I scavenged from one of the Imperials back on Coruscant. It's the only automatic weapon I have."

"OK, that's a shitty weapon but we have what we have. Now, I guess you'd prefer going in as stealthy as you can. The best thing, from what I see here from the maps, the best access point is from the garbage dump, on the southern side of the mountain. It's not a fancy point of entry but there's a door that leads straight to the maintenance level. From there to the cells it's a matter of a couple of staircases."

"Alright, Artoo, the ship is yours, get us there!" Padmè stood up and grabbed the carbine and the automatic rifle. "Do you think I can do it? I'm not a soldier?"

"No, you're a wife whose husband is in mortal danger. You certainly can do it!" replied Lysveet. "Do you still have that set of in-ear complink I gave you before you left?"

Unconsciously, Padmè nodded. Then remembered they couldn't see her and sighed. "I still have one. Obi-Wan and Anakin took two of them. Why?"

"Because if you give me five minutes more I'll be able to control the security system and the CC cameras all over the Citadel, and guide you."

Padmè glanced over at Artoo, who was chirping loudly. _Can she really do it?_ He asked.

"Artoo askes if you can really do it!"

"Of course I can!"

If Artoo had been human, his eyes would have been sparkling. _Can she teach me how to do it? I can do it from a computer internal the network I want to control, not remotely!_

Smiling, Padmè grabbed another cartridge of blaster shots and placed it in the satchel that hanged at her waist. "He asked if you can teach him how to do it from a remote computer."

They heard the hacker chuckle. "As soon as you get back here I'll upgrade your slicing software Artoo."

He moved around, bouncing a bit, as if he was jumping from the happiness.

Taking the carbine out of the cabinet and attaching the strap, she saw the explosive cash Organa had given them. "Do you think I could use a couple of thermal detonators?"

"Of course! The more fire power you have, the higher are your chances to survive." replied Darrick. "Ok, Lysveet is in. Are you ready?"

Padmè looked at the map on the ship computer screen. "Almost. Two minutes and I'll be there. Are there cameras on that side of the Citadel?"

"I've already sent them to a looping scheme. They won't notice your arrival. I also dampened the motion sensors, so you will be able to go around safely without them noticing they are turned off."

She pulled the lever and charged the weapon. In the end she was taking the carbine, the E-11 and a smaller blaster pistol hidden behind her back, the holster hidden under her shirt, and the two grenades. "Alright. It's time to see if a Loyalist Senator can be a pain in the ass for the Empire even in this case." she set the in-ear comlink and prepared to get down the ship.

Then, suddenly, she remembered something. Something her daughter had given her just before she boarded that very ship.

Her lightsaber.

She wasn't a Jedi, she didn't know how to fight using it but...it could cut pretty much anything. She was going into an unknown place, heavily guarded by Imperial and local soldiers and probably a lot of closed doors.

Almost scaring Artoo, who wasn't expecting her to rush away from the ramp a moment before he opened the ramp, she rushed to the crew compartment and grabbed her backpack. Quickly rummaging through her things, she found her daughter's lightsaber, as she grasped its tiny chromed hilt. She lifted it in front of her and pressed the tiny switch just below the emitter. The light blue blade came to life right in front of her eyes. It was slightly shorter than Anakin's lightsaber, or Obi-Wan's one, but it was logical. She would have her full length saber once she grew up.

She stared at the blade for endless seconds, part of her wanted to leave it on the ship, because she was terrified she could do something wrong with it, but she also knew it would be very helpful, in case she didn't find what she needed to open their cell.

Turning it off, she hanged it at her belt and walked back at the ramp. "Go on Artoo, open it."

Artoo opened the entrance ramp and let her walk down and go out before leading the ship to a safe place not far from there.

The area around the landing spot choose by her astrodroid was secluded and hid by high cliffs. From that place, she could see the back of the Citadel, roughly fifty yards above her. There were several openings in the rocky wall, probably hiding defense weapons and stuff. Looking around, almost instantly, she was able to find the door Darrick had been talking about. Hanging the carbine on her shoulder, she climbed the short path that led to the door. When she reached it, she tried the handle, but it found it locked. "Lysveet, it's closed."

On the other side she heard her typing. "Try now."

And it was open. "Alright, I'm in." Padmè closed the door behind her and heard the lock snap into position. "Now what?"

"Follow the staircase Padmè." said Darrick. "When you reach the top, turn left, there should be two doors. One is a weapon cabinet, the other leads to the maintenance level. Take that one."

She ran up the stairs and followed his instructions. The door was open and she stepped in easily.

The maintenance level was a sort of labyrinth, from what she could see. In front of here there was a long hallway with many doors on both sides of the walls. "Left or right?" she whispered.

"Right. Walk to the end of the corridor and open the six door door on the left. There's another staircase, go up and you should find a lift to the detention level."

"OK. Any sign of people incoming?"

"Not that we can see, but be careful, the CC cameras don't cover every spot of the base. We're following you on the screens but there are many void spots."

Sighing, Padmè took the carbine and held it in front of her. She didn't want to caught off guard and be arrested herself. Or worse, killed. "I have a bad feeling about this..." she whispered.

"I don't." replied Darrick. "Come on, we're here to guide you. Once you set them free, everything will be easier."

"I don't really know about that. They beat Anakin, quite badly." she said opening the door that led to the staircase. Slowly, she checked there was no one in sight and walked up.

"How do you know?" asked the Jedi on the other side of the line.

"He had the in-ear comlink with him, I heard it."

She could hear Darrick sighing. "Don't worry about it. He'll be fine. He's a tough guy. Just let him grab his lightsaber and he'll be good as new."

Then it struck her. If they had captured them, they must have taken their weapons too, obviously. And she didn't have a clue on where to search for them. But they would need them

"Lysveet, can you locate where the Imperials brought their lightsabers?" she asked, cautiously looking for signs of anyone incoming.

"I'm going...Darrick, would you please guide her while I search?"

"Anyway, why were you in the same room?" asked Padmè, chuckling softly.

The Jedi cleared his throat a couple of times before answering. "It's a long story Padmè." he said. "We'd better keep it for when you return here. Be careful, there's a soldier coming from the hallway on your right. Find a place to hide!"

Falling silent, Padmè looked around and found what looked like an utility room and hid in there. Closing the door behind her, she pressed her back against the wall and waited instructions.

"Damn it, he's coming in your direction!"

Sighing, Padmè raised her carbine and waited, holding her breath. "I hate killing people!"

"Steady Padmè, maybe you won't have to kill him." said Darrick. But what he saw on the computer screen in front of her, he didn't really believe what he was saying. "Wait he's..."

The door opened with a low his and the soldier stepped inside the utility room. With the help of the darkness, Padmè took a step towards him and hit him hard on the back of his head with the stock of her rifle, sending him on the ground, unconscious. Quickly, she dragged the motionless man inside and closed the door. Turning on her flashlight, he searched his body for weapons or anything else.

"Everything alright in there?" asked Lysveet.

"Yep, just fine. I managed not to kill him." she replied. "He's just a worker, I think, but he's harmed. And, he's not a local. He's an Imperial."

"How can you tell?"

"His ID badge. Says he's part of the construction crew that was deployed here."

She heard someone drumming on a solid surface on the other side. "I wonder what they want to do there!" stated Darrick.

"Well, right now, I care more about my husband and Obi-Wan. Have you found their weapons?"

"Not yet. I fear they haven't recorded them but...wait a sec...I think I found their cell."

Using a piece of rope she found in the room, Padmè tied the man's hands behind his back tightly, then tied his ankles too. She was thinking about gagging him but what Lysveet said caught her attention. "Where?"

"One level above you. Cell number 18. I'm trying to find out if there's a CC camera in there but it seems it's on a different circuit, it might take a while. Logically, their lightsabers should be in the sentry box just at the entrance of the floor, right outside the lift."

Mentally, Padmè thought about how to get in the sentry box. Suddenly, her thoughts flew back at one year before, when Anakin had done the same thing she was doing in that moment to save her and her colleagues on Daltarra. She hadn't thought about how he had arrived to their location, without guidance. Well, he had the Force to guide him, and a weapon slightly more silent than hers, but it was pretty much the same. She had never understood completely what he had done that day, most of all how, but as she spent more time in that suicide mission, she was slowly understanding what he had gone through.

"How many of them?" she asked then.

After a moment of silence, Darrick spoke. "Right now, nine. Two at the entrance, three in the box and four in the hallway. And on the way to the lift, thirteen possible encounters."

"Damn...now I understand what Anakin did last year!"

"Did you know that he threw up everything he had eaten for breakfast that day before coming to rescue you?"

Padmè smiled inwardly. "That's very like him!"

"He almost had an heart attack when we told him they had captured you. Anyway, what are you doing?"

"I'm making sure this one is not going to tell anyone there's an intruder in the Citadel for quite some more time!" she replied tying the makeshift gag she had made out of the handkerchief she had found in his pockets.

"You're tying him?"

"Of course I am!" she said standing up. "Is the way clear?"

"Yes, now it is. Go quick, I fear someone might go looking for that guy!" said Lysveet. "I'm still trying to locate their ligthsabers but it's not easy! Now I really fear they didn't record their location."

"Don't care now, I can look for them once I've reached the detention level. Right now I'm trying to sneak around as hidden as I can."

"And you're doing a great job. Get out of that room and it will be over sooner than what you think." replied Darrick. She heard him sigh. "I need a coffee." he said.

"Help me get out of here and you can go back sleeping. Or doing whatever you were doing before I called, which I think was mind-blowing sex, from the way you answered my call."

Lysveet stopped typing all of a sudden. "And you got that just by listening to his voice?"

Shaking her head, Padmè got out of the room bracing her rifle. "Lysveet, please, I have two kids and a husband I thought I had lost for eight years. I can recognize that kind of thing!" she had seen something in the few hours that had passed since the meeting between the Jedi and the Hacker, something going on between them. Now, after barely ten days, she had the certainty she had been right.

Darrick smothered a laugh. "Sorry Padmè. Sometimes I forget you have more experience than me in this field." he said. "Turn right here and take the second turn on the left. You should find the lift for the detention level there."

But she found a stormtrooper coming right in her direction.

Startled as much as he was, she stood motionless for an endless moment, just staring through the glass that covered his eyes on his helmet. He did the same, through the same lenses.

"What the..."

He didn't have the time to finish the sentence. Padmè was fast enough to raise her gun and shoot him before he did the same. He fell on the floor with a smoking hole in the middle of his chest. Just to be sure, she shot him again. "I hate killing people!" she snapped then.

"What happened?" asked the Jedi.

"A stromtrooper in one of the spots not covered by the cameras. That's what happened!"

"Damn...I'm sorry I didn't see him!"

"Don't worry, he's dead. Or at least unconscious. Is the way ahead clear?" she asked checking her weapon. She still had more than three thousand shots. That should have been enough.

"Looks like it is. But be careful and keep your rifle high."

She didn't have the time to take ten steps when Lysveet practically screamed in her ear. "Oh come on!"

"What?"

"Hurry up Padmè, Dalan is getting Anakin and Obi-Wan moved to Coruscant in less than three hours." she said, quite alarmed.

The only thought that crossed Padmè's mind was a long, unrepeatable sequence of curses in her native tongue. "Damn...are they moving them now?"

"Nope. According to their logs, they are still in their cell. And Dalan is in the commanding office, thirty levels above you."

Following Darrick's instructions, she found the lift. She didn't have time to go sneaking around. It was time for a full frontal attack.

"Alright, it's time to change tactic." she hang the high powered carbine on her shoulder and took the E-11, pulled the lever and removed the safety. "Forget the stealthy style. I'm going to create a hell of a trouble!"

"No wait Padmè don't haste things!" almost shouted Darrick. "You don't know what you'd have to face!"

Grunting in frustration, Padmè pushed the button for the lift. "Darrick, please I know you're worried but I've been chased by the Trade Federation, reconquered Theed, target of I don't know how many bounty hunters, and captured by the Empire. I know what kind of things I'd have to face!" she snapped, more harshly than she had in mind. "I know what I'm doing!"

The lift reached the detention level and two guards turned towards the opening doors. They were expecting everything, from their boss asking them to bring the prisoners upstairs to the guy they had sent downstairs to fetch the ammo they needed.

But they couldn't know that what they were facing was their death.

The last thing they saw in their life was the barrel of an automatic rifle held by a woman. The clone had seen many things in his life. He had participated to many battles in his life, but he had never thought that the end would come by the end of a former Senator coming to rescue her husband.

But, well, that's exactly what happened.

"With a cold blood Padmè didn't know she possessed, she pulled the trigger and killed the two guards in front of her.

Two quick and incredibly precise shots right between their eyes. They sagged on the floor, stone cold, without a sound a part for the clatter of their armors. "Two down, five more left." she said stepping out of the lift. "Where now?"

"Turn right. The sentry box is right that way. Use a grenade to make it quicker." suggested Darrick.

"Good." she grabbed the bomb from her utility belt and and walked towards the box.

"Be careful Padmè. They're coming!"

"And I'm ready to give them hell..."

She turned the corner and saw the sentry box. Quickly, she activated the thermal detonator in her hand and threw it into the box, then took cover behind the corner she had just turned. The grenade exploded sending shards and debris all around the place. The loud conflagration deafened her for a moment, she could barely hear Darrick's alarmed voice asking her if she was fine, even if she had covered her ears with her hands.

"Padmè?" he called repeatedly. "Padmè are you OK?"

"Yes..." she said above the noise. "I think I am. Are they dead?"

Darrik waited a moment as the smoke dissipated from the hallway. The camera was pretty much useless in that moment. When the smoke went away, he saw three bodies on the floor. Two clones and one of Dalan's personal men. And he was still moving. He was wounded, probably deadly hurt, but still moving. "There's one still moving. The one without the stormtrooper armor!"

Without hesitation, she stood up and grabbed the rifle. A quick split second to aim and the remaining man was dead. Five down, two to go. She didn't waste any second more. Avoiding the debris that the explosion had thrown everywhere, she entered in what remained of the sentry box and looked around. Most of the metallic structures were still intact, after all, thermal detonators had a high power explosive charge inside, but they were more dangerous for living beings, because of the high temperature generated by the device. The explosions of those kind of grenades weren't useful against ships, transports or for demolition in general. In fact, only the glass was broken, all the rest was in a rather good condition, everything considered.

She took a quick look around, then, not finding what she was looking for, she started a more accurate search, opening each closet and recess she could find. Until...

"Padmè what are you doing?" asked Darrick. As time went by, he was growing more and more worried about her safety and the outcome of that suicide mission.

"Looking for their lightsabers! Without them we're as good as dead!"

"Watch out, behind you!"

Without thinking, she grabbed the blaster gun behind her back and spinning in a swift motion she turned around and discharged half of the magazine on him, drilling his chest and creating seven smoking holes on his torso.

It's useless to say that when he touched the floor, he was dead.

Resuming her search, she finally found the two gleaming hilts in the top drawer of a file cabinet. She attached them to her belt and then exited the sentry box. "Where's their cell?"

"Walk straight ahead in front of you and turn right. Beware, there are still three guards there, waiting for you."

She glanced down that the grenade hanging at her belt. "Well, they'll meet a friend of mine." she said, grasping it and running towards the turn Darrick had signaled. A quick glance and she was the target of a shower of blasts. Holding her breath, she harmed the grenade and threw it towards the guards, then ducked and covered her ears.

Again, the blast was incredibly loud and made her ears ring. As the noise extinguished, she turned and checked the hallway. Through the smoke, she couldn't see anything. "I really hope they're dead." she grunted as the stood up and ran to the cell.

"They are, don't worry!" snapped Lysveet. "The grenade blasted practically under their feet. If they're not dead, they'll be in a couple of minutes."

Padmè reached the right door and, fumbling with the rifle, the three lightsabers she had hanging at the waist while trying to unhook them, she found herself shaking so much she could barely hold her daughter's lightsaber in her hand. She took a deep breath and tried to calm down. She had made it in the end. It had took a while but she had done it. It was useless to start shaking like that right at the end.

Breathing slowly, she ignited the blade and stuck it into the thick metal door above the lock, just as she had seen Anakin do with Jax's door. It was incredibly easy, far easier than what she had thought. She quickly cut a rather large part of the door, then she extinguished the blade.

The door opened, clearly pushed from the inside, and she saw Anakin sitting on the floor, in such a bad shape he was barely recognizable, and Obi-Wan standing beside the door. She threw them their weapons and took a step inside the cell.

"Let's get out of here before they call the backups!"

* * *

><p><em>OK, now you also know what happened on the other side of "Sledgehammer". And what's going on with Darrick and Lysveet back on Dantooine... Hope you liked it, now I'm off writing chapter 22 of Red Rain! Have fun!<em>


	5. Miles From Where You Are

_Little note: I changed nickname. No big deal. The old was was a little... old. _

* * *

><p><strong>Miles <strong>**From ****Where ****You ****Are**

"Fuck this place. I want to go home!"

The great Anakin Skywalker didn't feel so great in that moment. Wrapped in as many clothes as he could wear, he sat in the middle of the "meeting room", as Ferus called it. It was a room dug in ice and rock in the middle of the area they had chose for the new Rebel base with a couple of fold chairs and a table. Nothing else. Ferus felt strangely at ease in that place, in the middle of nothing, with no heating system. As if he was born to live in places like that, where ice never melts and snow is the only landscape around you.

Anakin was used to much warmer climates. He could stand the heat of Tatooine without a flinch, but cold... such intense cold like there on Hoth, it nearly killed him. He had brought the warmer clothes he owned, but it still wasn't enough.

Having already spent four weeks out of six he had been assigned there before going back to Dantooine, he felt a little stupid not having already acclimatized, but no such luck. He was freezing cold 24/7 and was ready to send the best regards to everyone and fly back home to his family.

Not only he had been forced as a form of sadistic revenge to be part of the first wave of workers on the ice planet for a new place that would work as a covert operations base and mineral extraction, considering the high amount of minerals in that place, but he had to come without his family and for the second time he had to be separated from his growing kids. Saying that he hated that situation was the understatement of the year.

"Then go home Skywalker! No one's keeping you here!"

He looked up at Ferus and snorted. "Shut up, you dragged me here and now you _are_ keeping me here. Stop acting like you don't want to keep me here for some distorted reasons. I broke your nose, you're keeping me here even though you know I hate cold climates. Fair enough."

"You don't even mean a word you've just said." he stated, coldness seething in his words.

They hadn't parted in good terms, he nearly bit the head off one of his best pilots when they had met again and they weren't exactly in the best place about their issues, nearly fifteen years after what had happened between them. Fair enough, they couldn't stand each other's presence, that was true. But what he did, tearing him away from his family six weeks before his daughter's first birthday knowing perfectly well how he felt about being forced to leave them home for any kind of reasons, that was beyond cruel.

He knew the story.

He knew Anakin had lost eight years of his life to save the life of more Jedi that he could have hoped (his own included) and in those eight years he had lost everything about his kids. He knew he wanted to be there for everything, but he came up with this unannounced trip to Hoth and the in-construction base on the northern hemisphere of the planet. The coldest hemisphere. It all sounded like a big joke at Anakin's expenses.

"Yeah. I don't mean it. I meant that you're a heartless bastard."

As cold as it was in that room, the silence that followed felt even colder than that. They stared at each other for a long while, before he shrugged his shoulders. "Who cares what you meant. You had your chance with me Skywalker. You blew it."

"Oh come on! That was ages ago! Can't you just bury the hatchet and forgive me? I know I was a jerk, I realized it long ago! I paid for my sins, OK?"

"You're alive. Darra isn't. If you had told me what you had done, she would still be here. If you had paid for your sins, as you said, you'd be dead." he said, voice filled with hatred. "You're alive. You haven't paid."

Anakin folded his arms across his chest and leaned back on the chair. "Would it make you feel better if I was dead?"

"No. But at least justice would be done. She died because you didn't tell me you had fixed Tru Veld's lightsaber!"

"She died because the Dark Side of the Force was screwing with us! And yes, I'm alive. I nearly died I don't know how many times since that day. I've been shot, slashed, beaten, stabbed, broken and rebuilt more times that you can count. If that's not a payback for all the idiotic things I've done in the past, then I don't really know what you want from me. Try at least to be civil with me, because we'll have to work with together for a while now." he looked at his watch and stood up. Time to go to his bunk, his shift had finished three hours earlier and he was dead tired. Also, they were entering the right time-window to call home and get to know how his family was doing. "Oh, and by the way, if you won't let me go back when we have agreed so I can be home for my daughter's birthday, you're gonna suffer. For real. I'm a nice guy, but when it comes to family, I'm the biggest asshole of the Galaxy. Clear?"

"Clear. I would never take her father from a little girl. I'm not that cruel. Now go, I know you want to call home."

He nodded and left. Outside, there was only a maze of hallways and rooms dug in ice or rock, a lot of work being done all day long, sometimes even at night, and feverish activity, even with that temperature. As he walked towards the living quarters, in the small single room that Ferus had kindly assigned to him, General Skywalker was saluted more times he could count. He didn't even know half of the people in there, they came from other bases and places in the Galaxy, he didn't much care if they saluted him or not. He just wanted to take that heavy and cumbersome jacket off, slip into something more comfortable and then take refuge beneath the giant mass of covers and blankets he had amassed on his bunk bed.

He literally wrapped himself into at least six different kind of covers, two of them were made out of high tech fabrics designed to protect people from the coldest environments. They didn't work so well, at least with him.

He was cold every fuckin' night of those six weeks. From his perspective, that sucked. Hard.

The few moments he spent without the heavy jacket before he slipped in his bunk nearly froze him off, there and then. Shivering like a dry leaf on the wind, he hastily settled down and relaxed, waiting for the insulating wrap around him to stop his body heat from dissipating into nothing. He was starting to feel a little better when the comlink beeped. He checked on the screen for the caller ID. Padmè, right on time as always.

"Hey there Angel. How you doin'?"

"Tired, but alright. How 'bout you?"

"Trying not to be turned into a Force Sensitive popsicle. I swear this is the last time I come here. Any other place would do. I'll go even to Yavin, I don't care. Hoth is off limits."

She giggled on the other side of the line. "I see. Do you want to speak to the twins?"

"Nah, let them do their homework, I know how you care about it. We texted this afternoon, before their training session with Obi-Wan. We're cool that way. How's Lena?" he asked, hearing the cheerful laughter of his youngest daughter in the background.

Padmè groaned. "Hyperactive. She didn't take her afternoon nap and now she's overstimulated. I've been trying to put her down for sleep for a long time now and there's no way she'll lay down to sleep. I think I'm going to let her ride the rush until she's exausted and falls asleep on her own."

"It may take some time, you know." he mumbled, running his hand on his roughened face. The combination of the extreme cold and the frenetic activity had restrained him from shaving. Results: three weeks worth of scruffy beard, perfect for keeping him a little warmer but definitely a reminder of his darkest days. It had stopped itching a long while earlier, still, everytime he touched his face his mind went back to the long, agonizing months on Dxun. He needed a long encounter with a razor.

"I know all too well. She's getting quieter now though. Maybe she's tired now."

"Want me to talk to her?"

He pictured her while she shrugged her shoulders and sighed. "Why not? Maybe it will work. After all, I've already changed her into her pjs."

He heard Padmè calling their daughter and the baby girl chirping loudly. He heard a soft thump when Lena staggered and fell while walking towards her mother and the crackling noise as Padmè held the comlink to their daughter's ear. A subsequent long streak of "DADA!" spoken in such a high pitched voice pierced his own ear and made him flinch a little, but despite the slight physical pain, hearing his little girl's voice for the first time after such a long time warmed his heart. It made him more than happy and more than willing to stand the next two weeks of forced leave.

"Hey Cricket! It's dad you remember me?"

Lena chirped again, happily, holding the comlink in both her tiny hands. She couldn't go much further than "mama" and "dada" as of words, she couldn't properly speak, be she knew of the make others understand her. And from the other side of the galaxy, her father could understand her pretty well: yes, she remembered him.

"Hey Crickey, listen to daddy: give mom a break. I know you're tired, mom told me you haven't slept this afternoon and I know you all too well. You get cranky without your nap! And it's getting late, so make daddy a promise: you'll be good and you'll let mom put you down for sleep now. OK?"

The tone of the next "dada" was completely different from the previews one. It was more quiet, calmer, all signs that Lena was quickly showing that she was tired for real.

"Good girl. Now, say goodnight to Luke and Leia, kiss mom for me and lay down, will you do that for me Crickey?"

"Ya, dad..a."

Ya was the closest word to yes Lena could say. And Anakin heard that she had tried to stop herself from adding the second "a" to dad. Padmè had told him a couple of days earlier that Leia was trying to teach her how to say dad instead of dada.

"Good girl. Come on Cricket, hand the comlink to mom and let her take you your bed. Can you do that for me?"

"Yeh." even if he couldn't see her, he knew she was nodding, as if she was in front of him.

"Hey, you said _yeh_! That's better than _Ya_!" he praised her for the improvement. "Now Crickey, give the comm to mom and go to bed. OK?"

"'ov yoo dad...a."

"Love you too sweetie. Now go. The bed misses you."

A moment later, Padmè was again in possess of the commlink. "Give me a minute. I'll put her down and be right back."

Exactly a minute later, just like she had said, the former Senator was back on the phone with her husband. "Here I am. So, how was your day?"

He grunted. "Ask me something else please. I swear I'm gonna kill Ferus one day or another, even if Jane asked me to leave her the privilege to choke him with her hands!"

"Still that bad?"

"Padmè, try to understand my situation: I'm light years away from where you are, every fuckin' night I have to sleep alone in the coldest room of the coldest building on the coldest planet in the whole Galaxy and I grew up in the desert. I miss you, I miss the kids, I miss my friends and I'm forced to stay all day with a guy that hates me. It's not the best place to stay."

"But Ferus was right to call you there. So you can supervise the building of the base from the perspective of the navy. We need you there."

He heard some ruffling on the other side of the line. "I know, I know. I got it. It's just that... well, I'd prefer a warmer place. That's all. By the way, what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to get ready for bed while talking to you. I know, I'm making some noise and you can pick it up."

She heard a loud groan as he sunk deeper beneath the little mound of cover above him. "Damn, I wish I could help you."

"The twins are still awake." she stated.

"I know." he mumbled. "It's just that... well you know..."

"Hey, if you haven't had sex in four weeks same goes for me, you know."

He felt like being an ass and holding a grudge to Ferus even for that. "Four weeks too much."

"Hey, we'll catch up when you come back! Don't worry, we can deal with that. We've already gone through a very long dry spell before."

She laughed when she heard him grunt even louder on the other side of the line. "That makes it even worse."

"What? The Galactic Masturbator can't deal with six weeks away from his wife?"

"Padmè, don't make fun of me. And yes, the Galactic Masturbator, who actually prefers to be called the Galactic Fucker if you don't mind, has issues with living half with half of the galaxy between us. Sorry if I'm kinda clingy when it comes to you."

"And sex." she added.

"And sex. The dry spell you talked about, just in case you've forgotten, lasted eight years. No wonder I became the Galactic Masturbator!"

A moment of comfortable silence followed, during which they simply basked in the warmth their long conversations always evoked in them. It wasn't exactly as being close, but it wasn't bad.

"You could always reprise the role." she said then, interrupting the silence. "You know, it's never too late."

"Nah... too cold." said Anakin, shifting a little to get a little more comfortable. "It's so cold I can't even get a boner in here."

"You didn't say that the other night..." the tone of her voice suddenly shifted and lowered.

Something stirred in him. Suddenly he wasn't so cold anymore. He ran his free hand on his face again and sighed. "The other night was a little different. I was horny, you were horny and the kids were already asleep. Seriously, we're King and Queen of comlink sex, but not now. Seriously, I miss sex, but I'm not in the mood."

She drew a long, deep breath. "Alright. Not in the mood. I get it."

"I'm sorry Padmè. It's just that... you said the kids are still up and stuff... Also I just argued with Ferus for the fourth time today... Seriously, I'd be a total whack and in the end no one would enjoy it."

"Anakin, seriously, no need to apologise. It's fine, seriously."

He closed his eyes, picturing his sexy wife on their bed, that terribly alluring nightgown he was sure she was wearing showing more skin than how much it should be legal. He crawled even more beneath the thick covers and sighed. "Why the hell I'm now thinking about that gown you bought some years ago that leaves more than nothing to imagination?"

Padmè chuckled. "Actually, I was going for sweats. It's quite cold in here."

"Better. Way better. Oh fuck off, I just miss you..."

"I miss you too Anakin. And I can't wait to have you here but..." she sighed. "I can't do much about it."

"Can't you just go to Antilles and ask him to call me back for some reason?"

"I've tried. More than once. But he's so happy that you're gone I can't really do anything about it."

"Shit..." he mumbled. "Damn it... I won't resist two weeks more, I can't..."

She hushed him. "No Anakin, you can. You can deal with everything, with Ferus, the other guys, the cold and the distance. We can deal with everything. Six weeks is nothing, you understand me?"

"Yes Padmè I do but..."

"But nothing. Anakin, we can wait two more weeks. Just be sure to be here for Lena's birthday. It wouldn't be the same without you."

"Oh don't worry, I'll be there. Even if I have to punch Ferus through a wall and encase him in ice. I swear. I'll make it for her birthday. Maybe a couple of days earlier."

"Good, because I've got something to tell you."

He took his time to reply. "Do I have to worry?"

She shook her head. "Nope. At all. But I don't want to tell you on the phone. I want to see your reaction."

"Alright, that means you think I'll over-react. It's either extremely good or extremely awful. You said I don't have to worry about it, so..."

"Extremely good. I tell you. Now, it's time to put the twins in bed. And it's time for you to sleep too, or tomorrow you're going to be a vegetable and Ferus will pick on you even more."

Anakin scrubbed his face hard. "Alright. Goodnight Padmè. Sleep well."

"You too. Love you."


End file.
